Many homes for sale are not selling in Sequim and Port Angeles, and this could also be said of homes for sale all over the country.  Would you like to know what the number one complaint is for home owners who have listed their home with a real estate agent?  It is by far the number one complaint of homeowners.

Homes for Sale Complaint No. 1

“I listed my home with a real estate agent, and they put it in the MLS, ran a couple of local ads, and that was it.  Nothing has happened, and I haven’t heard anything from my agent in months.  I’m not happy at all with my agent, but I’m stuck with this long term listing agreement.”  This is the biggest complaint of those with homes for sale all over the country.

This complaint is so common, it has practically become the rallying cry of homeowners all over the country.  So what is a homeowner to do if they are in this situation? For those homeowners with homes for sale who currently have this same complaint, here is a practical approach to an old dilemma from both a legal perspective and a real estate marketing perspective.

Homes for Sale Don’t Sell Themselves

Let’s talk about marketing homes for sale.  The real estate business has been changing over this past decade, and especially over the past five years.  Traditional real estate brokerages have used print advertising heavily to sell real estate in the past.  Built into their marketing plans, which they taught to all their agents, were marketing techniques, such as holding open houses, sending out “just sold” cards, farming neighborhoods with mailings, using flyers, and relying on walk-ins and hoping the phone would ring.  They were also taught to do a lot of cold calling on expired and withdrawn listings as well as FSBOs.  Some large franchises used billboards and radio, and the impressive offices were large buildings with a couple of hundred agents.  Notice that all of these methods were used 30 years ago, which is when I first started in the real estate business.  Do you think marketing and consumer preferences have changed?  Absolutely!  Marketing homes for sale might still involve some of these techniques, but the mix has changed, and there is much more that can be done with today’s advanced technologies.

Marketing Homes for Sale Changed

Nearly all of those traditional marketing techniques have been dying a slow death.  Newspaper print ads and magazine print ads are woefully ineffective for selling homes today.  As I am fond of saying, “That’s not front page news . . . for those who still read the front page.”  Buyers hardly even look at newspaper classifieds to search for a home today.  They simply jump up on the Internet and search to their hearts’ content.  It’s far more efficient, allows them to see all the homes for sale in the MLS, not just a few dozen, they can do it without annoying salesmen bothering them, and it’s free.

It’s no wonder that salesmen who simply list a home, put their homes for sale in the MLS, run a local ad, and hope for a sale are not getting results.  On top of that, far too many agents are terrible at something very important to clients called “customer service.”  But for some agents spending a lot of time communicating with clients is not part of their business model.  I know top producers who specialize in simply listing properties.  They give homeowners one heck of a good listing presentation, and then that’s it.  The agent does very little beyond putting their homes for sale in the MLS, because he/she is waiting for some other agent to sell the home.  The theory is if you list enough properties, other agents will sell enough of your listings and you’ll make a good income.  But that ignores individual clients doesn’t it?

None of this is very consumer-centric.  None of this places the homeowner at the center of the marketing plan.  And guess what?  Those with homes for sale figure this out after months of nothingness.   They don’t like being ignored, and they are not amused when their home isn’t being marketed effectively.

So for the many good people with homes for sale, what can be done?  When I was still practicing real estate law, clients often came to me with the question, “How do I get out of a listing when my agent hasn’t done much of anything to sell my home?”

First, if your listing agreement is coming up very very soon for expiration, then now is the time to find a truly experienced agent who is very good at marketing in this new world we live in with technology and the Internet.

Second, if your listing agreement doesn’t expire for a while, you are perfectly within your rights to ask your agent to withdraw the listing immediately, which means the listing is terminated.  There’s nothing wrong with a homeowner saying to their agent, “Look, I want to be honest with you.  I’m not really satisfied with the work you’ve done for me.  No hard feelings, but I don’t want to continue the listing under these circumstances, and I think it would be best if we went our separate ways, so I’d like you to terminate the listing agreement effective today, or at least by the end of the day tomorrow.”  By the way, the first response your agent will give you is, “I don’t have the authority to cancel the listing.  I’ll have to talk with my broker, but I’m not sure if she will agree.”  Fine.  Go talk, but terminate the listing immediately.

How will your agent’s broker respond?  Well, it would be hard to imagine your broker not agreeing to terminate the listing, because the alternative is not very pleasant.  In essence your broker would be saying indirectly, “No, I’m not going to terminate the listing agreement.  We have a contract, and I’ve spent time and money to market your home.  I’m going to force you to continue to work with us, even if you don’t want to and even if you feel we are incompetent.”  Of course, they would never say that precisely, but isn’t the result pretty close to something like that?  Any broker that takes that approach should probably read “How to Make Friends and Influence People.”

In my own practice, any client of mine has the right to terminate the listing any time they want, no questions asked.  Why in the world would I want to force a client to work with me if they didn’t want to.  As a practical matter, my clients don’t cancel listing contracts with me, because I am willing to prove myself week after week, and my clients are generally very pleased with the extensive marketing I do with all my homes for sale.

From the legal perspective, if a Broker refused to terminate the listing agreement, if he has not fulfilled his contractual obligation to market your property effectively and keep you informed and to do all the other things he promised, then your broker has breached his contract with you, and your are entitled to terminate the listing agreement.  There is a great deal of case law precedent on this subject.  The case law says that you have the right to terminate the listing if your broker has not performed under the terms of the agreement, although you may have to reimburse him for actual advertising expenses incurred, which usually turns out to be not very much, like a couple of hundred dollars for print advertising.

If your home is for sale and you are unsatisfied with your agent, don’t play the victim and do nothing for months and months while you lose money and time.  Take charge and be assertive.  Hire the agent you believe has the marketing saavy to get your home sold.  Don’t worry about hurting someone’s feelings, because that timid approach could cost you a sale or tens of thousands of dollars.  And if you miss the best time of the year to sell your home because of poor marketing, you may have lost another year.

Sequim homes for sale won’t market themselves.

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• Sequim Home for Sale on 10 Acres in Private Setting
• Selling Your Sequim Home in This Market

Sequim and Port Angeles has many homes for sale, and in this competitive market (a buyer’s market), sellers must do everything they can to make a home attractive to buyers.  There are some things over which a seller has no control, such as the architecture and floor plan.  And sellers can’t do anything about the location of the home, or the outbuildings.

Homes for Sale Should Look Good

But there are many things a seller can do to make their home appeal to potential buyers.  There are the obvious things, such as staging the home, or arranging the furniture to make it look as nice as possible.   With all the homes for sale, a home for sale should be clean, and some like to have coffee brewing or fresh coffee beans on the kitchen counter for the pleasant aroma.  These are all good, but there are a few really big deal killers that sellers should be aware of.

Homes for Sale Deal Killer

Smells are a huge factor when buyers are walking through a home.  Bad smells alone can push buyers away completely.  Since buyers have so many choices with all the homes for sale, sellers cannot afford to make mistakes.  Here’s a true story.  I showed a home to a couple because the home fit the general parameters of our search.  The location was good, and the size and floor plan was good too.  But when we walked in the front door, there was a horrible cat urine stench.  It was so strong, we hesitated before going further.  We all knew this home was immediately off the list, but out of curiosity we walked through the home, and the strong urine smell permeated the entire home.

Homes for Sale with Smells

I showed another home to a couple from California, and again this home was within the search parameters for my client’s ideal home, but when we walked down the stairs into the daylight basement, our noses warned us we were walking into a high moisture area with a strong moldy smell filling the entire basement area.  With all the homes for sale today, this strong moldy smell is a deal killer.

Some of the homes for sale with bad odors will simply sit on the market and will not sell.  No one wants them.  Some of these homes have been listed for sale for one or two years or even longer.  Discerning home buyers are not going to buy a home with an unsolvable odor or moisture problem, not when there are so many homes for sale and so many choices.

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Some Sequim homes for sale have not sold even after being on the market for a long time.  Obviously, the state of the real estate market has a lot to do with listings that have not sold.  We haven’t had the influx of buyers from years past, and the inventory of Sequim homes for sale is large and not turning over as it did in the first half of this decade.

Are Some Sequim homes for sale are overpriced?

A home that is overpriced is not going to sell.  We all get that.  Yet there are still many homes on the market that are overpriced.  Is that because the seller doesn’t know, or because he is stubborn, or because his real estate agent doesn’t know?  Pick one and you’re probably right.  (“All we need is that one buyer who falls in love with the place.”  Right.  That’s the line we always use when we can’t sell a home.)

Some Sequim homes for sale are just weird.

Nobody wants a weird home, except the people who built it.  My clients and I have seen some of the strangest floor plans and most unusual architectural styles (or lack thereof).  Here’s the clincher.  Someone who builds a weird home and it is now one of many Sequim homes for sale, sincerely doesn’t understand why the ideal buyer doesn’t come along and just snap it up.  There are Sequim homes for sale that fall into this category.

Sequim homes for sale . . .

. . . must be what buyers want.  If you intend to purchase a home in Sequim or Port Angeles, one of the major elements of your decision, in my humble opinion, ought to be the “resellability” of the home.  If your home is not something buyers will want, you may be stuck with it when and if you decide to sell, and that time comes far sooner than most people think it will.  Grand kids live too far way, and you want to sell and be closer to your family.  Health issues force you to move elsewhere, or the death of a loved one changes your plans on where you want to live.

In the photo above, a home in Eagle, Alaska was caught by a spring flood on the Yukon River, which occurred while I was visiting family near Eagle two years ago.  Chunks of ice the size of houses came roaring down the river wiping out the entire original Eagle Indian village, and many houses in the new city of Eagle.  I’ve used this photo to emphasize the point that you don’t want to buy a home in the wrong place or that is not sellable.  [I used to hike the mountain in the horizon.]

Many people who did purchase homes in Sequim or Port Angeles that are unusual or weird or in a bad location are now in serious trouble as they cannot sell their home at any reasonable price.  There are plenty of Sequim homes for sale that have good floor plans in nice areas and are reasonably priced.

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A beautiful and modern kitchen is definitely one of the top three major features a home must have to appeal to buyers.  There’s no doubt that the kitchen is the woman’s focus as she walks into a home for the first time.  Yes, we have some men who are the chefs in the family, but the vast majority of couples fall into the normal family pattern, which is that the kitchen is the woman’s real estate and the garage and shop are the man’s real estate.  Click on this photo to enlarge it for better viewing.

This gorgeous custom built kitchen is an excellent example of what buyers find appealing.  This kitchen has custom Cherry cabinetry with gloss black Avonite solid surface countertops, a lot of pull out shelves, pull out spice units, full extension soft closing drawers, and stainless steel appliances.  The kitchen floor is tile, and there are some beautiful custom additions to this kitchen, like the hand painted mural on tile behind the cook top stove and above the sink windows and one of the kitchen doorways.

You can see a full sized enlarged version of this kitchen photo by clicking on the photo above.  And you can view more photos of this home at Sequim Custom Home on Acreage.

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Sequim home for sale:  New on the market is this Sequim home for sale on 10 acres in a private setting, only a few miles from downtown Sequim with custom cherry cabinetry, Avonite solid surface black countertops, stainless steel appliances, wine cellar, 4 bedrooms, a den, an office, hot tub, double car garage, sprinkler system, and comfort that says this is home.  There’s a custom built horse barn with two stalls, wash rack, hay loft, heated tack room with cabinets/storage, saddle racks, and washer and dryer hookups.  The house has a double car garage and there’s a covered RV stall with hookups for electric, sewer, and water.  The deck has Trex decking, and the house had all new roofing in 2010.

Sequim Home For Sale Exclusivity

This Sequim home for sale is available exclusively through eXp Realty, also known as Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate.  The house is priced very reasonably at $795,000.  There’s not another property like this in Sequim.  This home is not in the MLS and it is shown only by appointment.  Call Chuck Marunde at 360-775-5424 for your private showing.

This Sequim home for sale won’t last long, because it is so rare.

If you are retiring to Sequim, this custom home is a rare find.  Of all the Sequim homes for sale, this one is in the 99th percentile.  This home is not in the MLS, and that is the reason we call it an “exclusive.”  See the data sheet at Sequim Home for Sale.

A Sequim home for sale on 10 acres is hard to find.

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